Admiral Grace M. Hopper was born on December 9, 1906, in New York, NY, and is considered one of the first software engineers. She received her doctorate in mathematics from Vassar College in 1934. She joined the faculty at Vassar, but resigned in December 1943 to join the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). She became a lieutenant in July 1944, and was assigned to Howard H. Aiken's research team, where she learned to program his electromechanical computing machine named Mark I. After WWII, Hopper continued to work in business, academia and the military, and was promoted first to commodore in 1983, and then to admiral. Hopper's most famous contribution to computer science was the compiler, a program designed to translate English language instructions into the language of the target computer. Hopper died on January 1, 1992, and was buried with full Naval honor at Arlington National Cemetery.

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